Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Severe typhoon hits Hong Kong and south China

James Pomfret
Reuters
Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:01 UTC
Hong Kong raised its highest tropical cyclone warning on Tuesday as an intensifying severe typhoon edged closer towards the financial hub, grounding flights and forcing the port to close.

Financial markets, schools, businesses and non-essential government services close when any No. 8 or above signal is hoisted, posing a disruption to business in the capitalist hub and former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The Hong Kong observatory said it expected the No. 10 signal to remain in force overnight, meaning markets could be shut down in the morning.

Separately, China's National Meteorological Center issued an orange alert for Typhoon Vicente, the second highest warning level in China's four-tier typhoon warning system, state media reported.

Strengthening gale force winds overturned trees, churned up huge waves in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour and sent debris flying, injuring some 30 people as Vicente edged closer to the city and the western reaches of China's Guangdong province.

Twelve flights were cancelled and over 200 delayed late on Monday evening in Hong Kong, aviation authorities said.
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Stop

Extreme Weather: Thirty-Seven Killed in Record Beijing Rains


RIA Novosti
Sun, 22 Jul 2012 18:05 UTC
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© Reuters/ China DailyA woman pushes her bicycle on a flooded street amid heavy rain in Beijing on July 21, 2012
Thirty-seven people were killed as the heaviest downpours in more than half a century have flooded China's capital, Beijing, state-run new agency Xinhua reported.

Only 22 victims were identified. Most of them drowned, but some were killed by houses brought down by the flood or electrocuted, and one was hit by lightning, the report said.

Some 14,500 Beijing residents have been evacuated from flood-hit areas as of early Sunday, China Network Television (CNTV) said on its website.

Heavy rains began in Beijing on Saturday morning, with 220 mm of rain falling over the city of 14 million, the report said. The rains were the heaviest to hit China's capital in 61 years.
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Bizarro Earth

Beijing Sees Heaviest Rains in 60 years‎


Associated Press
Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:26 UTC
Beijing Floods
© Associated PressA woman wades through a flooded street following a heavy rain in Beijing Saturday, July 21, 2012. China's government says the heaviest rains to hit Beijing in six decades. The torrential downpour Saturday night left low-lying streets flooded and knocked down trees.
The heaviest rain to hit Beijing in six decades killed at least 10 people and left cars and buses submerged, and 10 other storm deaths were reported elsewhere as China braced Sunday for more downpours.

The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas. In Tongzhou district on the capital's eastern outskirts, two people were killed by collapsed roofs, one person was fatally struck by lightning and a fourth was electrocuted by a fallen power line as he helped neighbors escape, the government's Xinhua News Agency said.

One man in Beijing died when his car was trapped in deep water near the city center, the newspaper Beijing News said.

Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, Xinhua said, citing disaster officials. Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their truck was swept away by a rain-swollen river.

On Sunday, the government warned of more storms over the following 24 hours for China's northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast.
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Radar

18 die, 17 hurt as landslide hits bus in Mizoram, Northeastern India

Linda Chhakchhuak
The Telegraph, India
Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:16 UTC
Image
© UB Photos
Mizoram orders probe to ascertain cause of accident

At least 18 persons died and 17 were injured when a landslide from a roadside quarry hit a night bus at Keifang village in Champhai district of western Mizoram on the Indo-Myanmar border, about 100km from this capital town, last night.

The bus, run by a Champhai-based private transport agency KZ Travels, was travelling from Champhai town to Aizawl. It had almost reached the end of this quarry around 1am when the boulders came crashing down, hitting the rear of the bus and pushing it over the deep gorge, survivors said.

Travellers along this road have often complained about the quarry, fearing landslides, but the authorities have failed to take action.

As news spread, people from nearby villages gathered at the site and started rescue work. At least five persons, a family of four (Dengthuama, 24, his wife Malsawmtluangi, 24, and their children Zothanmawia, 4, and Zomuanpuii, 3) and a man, escaped unhurt.
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Cloud Lightning

Flash flooding fears prompt state of emergency in British Columbia


CBC News
Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:53 UTC
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© CBCLast month, flash flooding near Sicamous, B.C., washed the highway, damaging several vehicles and cutting off road access and drinking water supplies to hundreds of residences.
Fears about the possibility of a flash flood have led a city in British Columbia's Cariboo region to declare a state of local emergency.

The City of Quesnel, located 114 kilometres south of Prince George, B.C., says specialists from Emergency Management BC have visited the site of a landslide on Baker Creek, near Pinnacles Provincial Park.

They say the slide may have taken place as early as June 28, creating a blockage and backing up water to a depth of three to 3.6 metres.
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Bizarro Earth

Bus Falls into Deep Gorge During Landslide in India


Associated Press
Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:15 UTC
Image
© presstv.irPeople look at a bus that fell off a bridge in India’s northwestern state of Maharashtra on June 16, 2012.
A government official in India says 18 people are dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge after being hit by hurtling boulders during a landslide in the mountainous northeast. Another 17 people are injured.

Gauhati, India - A government official in India says 18 people are dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge after being hit by hurtling boulders during a landslide in the mountainous northeast. Another 17 people are injured.

Arunachal Pradesh state Transport Minister Zoram Sangliana says the bus plunged about 45 meters (150 feet) into the gorge early Saturday near Keifang, a village 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Aizawl, the state capital. Monsoon rains triggered the landslide in the region.
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Umbrella

Floods kill 2 in Philippines, halt traffic


Statesman.com
Sun, 22 Jul 2012 09:15 UTC
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© AP Photo/Bullit Marquez Children play in floodwaters following heavy monsoon rains spawned by a tropical depression in Manila, Philippines, Saturday July 21, 2012. The heavy rains flooded most parts of metropolitan Manila Saturday forcing cancellation of classes, creating massive traffic jams and closure of some businesses.
Torrential monsoon rains have inundated large areas of the northern Philippines, leaving at least two people dead and six missing and halting traffic in parts of the capital for many hours.

The weather bureau says the rains early Saturday were aggravated by a passing tropical depression.

A civil defense report says the body of a man was recovered from floodwaters in Laguna province south of Manila and another person drowned in a swollen creek in northern La Union province.

Many roads in the sprawling capital area were underwater for hours, halting traffic.

Suburban Pasay City Mayor Antonio Calixto says some areas near Manila's airport had neck-deep floods, forcing vehicles to take other routes.
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Cloud Lightning

China: 10 Dead, 30,000 Evacuated in Beijing Downpour

Yang Lina
Xinhua
Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:00 UTC
Beijing flood
© Xinhua/Li FangyuFirefighters pull a submerged car near Guangqumen Bridge in Beijing, capital of China, July 21, 2012.
The heaviest rain in six decades in the Chinese capital has left 10 people dead, Beijing authorities said Sunday.

As of 4 a.m. Sunday, more than 30,000 residents in districts of Fangshan, Huairou, Mentougou and Pinggu as well as Miyun and Yanqing counties were relocated, the city's floods control headquarters said at 9 a.m.

In Fangshan, where the maximum precipitation reached 460 mm in Hebei Township as of 6 a.m., road traffic in 12 townships was disrupted. Mobile telecommunication services and Internet access were cut off in six townships, the headquarters said.
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Cloud Lightning

Tornado downed trees near Locustville, Virginia

Carol Vaughn
delmarvanow.com
Sat, 21 Jul 2012 05:24 UTC
Image
Viewer photo of reported tornado from from WTKR.com.
The Accomack County Department of Public Safety said its investigation found signs of tornado damage after a tornado reportedly touched down near Locustville on Saturday afternoon.

Newly hired Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Doug Jones told the Board of Supervisors DOS personnel found damage to trees in the area behind Accawmacke Elementary School as well as the wooded area off Nedab Lane.

One vehicle received minor damage from a fallen tree and numerous trees were downed and were found to be twisted off from the ground up.

Several roads also flooded during the storm, which reportedly dumped nearly 4 inches of rain in some spots near Locustville and up to 6 inches in Gargatha.

No injuries were reported and no structural damage was found besides downed electric wires and a pole.
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Cloud Lightning

When the heavens opened over New York: Incredible pictures of torrential rain, lightning, and hail breaking the city's heatwave


Daily Mail
Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:35 UTC
Image
© UnknownNew Yorkers were hit with a torrential rain storm that turned the air from a humid summer swelter to a soggy downpour in a New York minute Wednesday afternoon. While those on the ground watched in disbelief as a sunny day turned into a hailstorm with inch-wide ice chunks hurling down from the sky, the best view was from above.
Manhattanites were hit with a torrential rain storm that turned the air from a humid summer swelter to a soggy downpour in a New York minute. As pedestrians took cover, meteorologists looked for explanations. 'It went out with a bang,' National Weather Service meteorologist Joey Pica said of the triple-digit heat that suffocated the city for the past three days.

While those on the ground watched in disbelief as a sunny day turned into a hailstorm with inch-wide ice chunks hurling down from the sky, the best view was from above. Instagram and Twitter quickly filled with images of the storm from people flying around the city at the time of the late-afternoon storm.

Arguably the best image comes from former NFL player Dhani Jones, who captured a moment when all of the precipitation of the city swirled in one frightful column, harkening something out of a villainous fantasy film. At the time, Jones was flying out of LaGuardia airport, which is in Queens, and was able to see over Queens and into part of Manhattan.

Additional photos
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